Heroes Technical Alpha Patch Notes -- Oct 7, 2014

A little over a week ago, we brought Heroes of the Storm offline in order to prepare for the final phase of Technical Alpha testing. Today, we’re thrilled to announce that the Calm Before the Storm has passed, and we’ve got a brand new patch available for you. The Heroes Technical Alpha is now back online and you can check out our complete patch notes below.

All Heroes of the Storm Technical Alpha accounts have been reset with today’s patch.

All purchases made using real-money prior to today’s account wipe have been reset and refunded to your Battle.net balance.

From now on, any real-money and Gold purchases made in the Heroes Shop are permanent and will not need to be reacquired in the future.

All in-game Gold earned, as well as any purchases made using Gold, have been wiped clean, along with all experience points, Hero and Player Level progression, Daily Quests, and rewards.

Future updates may still require adjustments or wipes for player progression, but there are no further plans to do so, and this will be avoided whenever possible.

Please see the Shop section below for more details on purchases using Battle.net Balance.

General

Double XP Week

For one week following today’s patch, games played in any matchmaking mode (Practice, Cooperative, and Versus) will award double the normal amount of experience points!

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Pre-Order Bonus

Valla, the Demon Hunter, is now unlocked and playable for all Technical Alpha testers who previously pre-ordered the Reaper of Souls expansion for Diablo III.

Please Note: This promotion did not grant Technical Alpha testing access. Players that pre-ordered Reaper of Souls, but have not yet been invited into the Tech Alpha, will receive Valla once they have Heroes of the Storm access in the future.

All Players Have Been Moved to Their Home Battle.net Region

Heroes of the Storm now utilizes the friends list that is shared across all other Blizzard games.

Initial implementation for the Heroes of the Storm Replay System has been added.

Replays can be access by clicking the Watch button, which is now enabled on the menu navigation bar at the bottom of the screen.

Select a Replay from the list, and then click Watch Solo in the bottom left corner of the screen to launch the Replay.

After launching a Replay, use the controls in the lower left corner of the screen to Pause or Resume (P), speed up (=), or slow down (-) playback. Click anywhere on the Replay Timeline (T) to navigate to that point in the Replay.

Once again, please note that this iteration of the Replay System is not final and work is ongoing. Additional improvements and polish will be added with future game updates.

Shop

Please be advised that it is not currently possible to make partial payments when attempting to make real-money purchases using Battle.net Balance.

If a player has insufficient funds in his or her Battle.net Balance to make the desired purchase, that player will be required to load additional Balance, or use an alternate payment method.

For example: A Heroes player wants to buy a Bundle Pack that costs $20 USD, but only has a Battle.net Balance of $10 USD. That player cannot use those funds toward the final purchase price unless an additional $10 is loaded onto the account (for a total balance of $20,) or an alternate payment method is selected.

Bundle Packs

The Azgul’dan Azmodan and Cyb’Arak Anub’Arak Bundles have been made available in the Shop for a limited time.

Second Chance Bundle Week!

All Bundle Packs that were made available at any point during Alpha testing thus far have been re-enabled, and can once again be purchased in the Heroes Shop for one week following today’s patch.

Anub’Arak and Azmodan have been added to the Heroes of the Storm Shop!

Chen’s Gold price has been reduced from 15,000 to 10,000 Gold.

Prices for Li Li and ETC have been reduced to $3.99 USD or 2,000 Gold.

Mounts

Wonder Billie

Players will receive the Wonder Billie Mount for making any real-money purchase during Alpha and Closed Beta testing.

Players who receive the Wonder Billie Mount will also receive an exclusive Wonder Billie portrait.

The Wonder Billie Mount will no longer be awarded for purchases made once Open Beta testing begins.

Armored War Steed

Available only with purchase of the Starter Bundle.

Battle Beast

Freely available to all players when using Heroes that can ride Mounts.

Several Heroes, such as Stitches, Diablo, (and Murky!) will now use the Battle Beast by default.

Golden Cyber Wolf

Available only with purchase of the Battle Bundle.

Nazeebra

Available only with purchase of the Nexus Bundle.

Nexus Charger

Available only to BlizzCon 2014 attendees and Virtual Ticket holders.

Piggy Bank

Available for Gold purchase only.

Skins

New Skins

Az’guldan Azmodan and Cyb’arak Anub’arak have been added to the Shop.

Legendary Skins

Today’s patch introduces the very first Heroes of the Storm Legendary Skin: Infested Tychus!

This Skin has received all new ability, sound, and voiceover effects, and has been re-released in the Shop. Head into the Shop today to check out the revamped Infested Tychus, and be sure to give him a test drive in Try Me mode.

Master Skins

New Master Skins have been added for the following seven Heroes, and more will be added in future updates: